In an interview with Matt Lauer, scheduled to air in part during NBC Night News tonight, the Olympic swimmer says he takes “full responsibility” for “over-exaggerating” the story about what happened to him and three other US swimmers in Rio de Janeiro last week. Finding no restroom, Conger wrote, they relieved themselves around against a wall, and Lochte damaged the sign.
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The Olympic host country’s law enforcement claims that Lochte and three teammates vandalized a bathroom at a gas station and fought with a security guard. Mr Lochte tweeted: “I should have been more responsible in how I handled myself and for that I am sorry”.
“I left details out”, Lochte told Lauer. Whether you call it robbery, whether you call it extortion or us paying just for damages – we don’t know. “All we know is there was a gun pointed in our direction and we were demanded to give money”.
All four swimmers are now back in the U.S.
The four Usa swimmers caught up in a Brazilian brouhaha over their bathroom break at a Rio gas station will be the focus of a new International Olympic Committee disciplinary commission, the IOC said Saturday.
An excerpt of the interview aired during “NBC Nightly News” on Saturday evening, but the full interview will appear Monday morning on the “Today Show”.
The incident has angered many Brazilians sensitive to their country’s reputation for crime and created an global embarrassment for the United States that could yet upend Lochte’s swimming career. Lochte, 32, has not indicated whether he will compete at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Michael Phelps finally broke his silence on the Ryan Lochte scandal.
He said security guards drew guns on them and yelled at them to sit on the ground.
The International Olympic Committee is now setting up a disciplinary commission to investigate Lochte and the three US swimmers he was with.
If Rio didn’t have such a bad reputation for their unsafe streets, the mastermind of this lie, Lochte, would not have thought to use the robbery story in the first place.
“After attending an event with several swimmers from different nations, I left in a taxicab along with USA swimmers Jack Conger, Jimmy Feigen and Ryan Lochte around 6am. We’re victims in this”, Lochte reportedly told Lauer. They just can’t get away with leaving property destruction in the wake of their partying ways.
“I can not speak to his actions, but Ryan stood up and began to yell at the guards”, Bentz said in his statement. And then he noted that there were guns involved, though none were pointed at anyone’s head:”Two men, whom I believe to have been security guards, then instructed us to exit the vehicle. We were all frightened”.
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“I can only congratulate these athletes and say thank you, because this is really the spirit of the Olympic Games”.
